2010: Starting off the Wrong Way at DMI

The Latest issue of the DMI Review was the first thing to land on my desk in 2010. It is titled “New Pathways to Integrated Design Success,” and comes right on the heels of their last issue “Design as Integral to Business Success.” What are they thinking? The articles themselves may be perfectly worthwhile. But DMI (and many others) are clearly stuck in a rut — spinning the same rhetoric about design and business success from issue to issue. Can't we give it a rest? I took some time over the break to reflect on the state of design after some thought-provoking experiences this fall at events like the Aspen Design Summit & PopTech. I am hoping that 2010 is a year in which we can finally bring the rhetoric and practice of design back into alignment. Unfortunately, the folks at DMI seem to be thinking otherwise...

As frog's Vice President of Creative, Robert Fabricant leads efforts to expand the impact of design into new markets and industries. An expert in design for social innovation, Robert is lead partner in Project Masiluleke, an initiative that harnesses the power of mobile technology to combat HIV and AIDS in South Africa. He is an adjunct professor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York.